Cacao Explained

Cacao is the seed from which cocoa and chocolate are made, from Spanish cacao, an adaptation of Nahuatl cacaua, the root form of cacahuatl ("bean of the cocoa-tree"). It may also refer to:

Plants

• Theobroma cacao, a tropical evergreen tree
  • Cocoa bean, the seed from the tree used to make chocolate
  • Cacao paste, ground cacao beans. The mass is melted and separated into:
    • Cocoa butter, a pale, yellow, edible fat; and
    • Cocoa solids, the dark, bitter mass that contains most of cacao's notable phytochemicals, including caffeine and theobromine.

Places

• Cacao, French Guiana
• Cacao, Carolina, Puerto Rico
• Cacao, Quebradillas, Puerto Rico
• Cacao Alto, Patillas, Puerto Rico
• Cacao Bajo, Patillas, Puerto Rico
• Hacienda Cacao, Yucatán, Mexico, tropical rainforest

Other uses

• Maria Cacao, a mountain goddess in the Philippines

See also

• Cacau (disambiguation)
• Cocoa (disambiguation)
• Coca (disambiguation)
• Kakao, a Korean conglomerate named after the cacao seed